| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Pompeii | | By Thomas Gold Appleton (1812–1884) |
| | | THE SILENCE there was what most haunted me. | |
| Long, speechless streets whose stepping-stones invite | |
| Feet which shall never come; to left and right | |
| Gay colonnades and courts,—beyond the glee, | |
| Heartless, of that forgetful Pagan sea; | 5 |
| On roofless homes and waiting streets, the light | |
| Lies with a pathos sorrowfuller than night. | |
| Fancy forbids this doom of Life with Death | |
| Wedded, and with her wand restores the Life. | |
| The jostling throngs swarm, animate, beneath | 10 |
| The open shops, and all the tropic strife | |
| Of voices, Roman, Greek, Barbarian, mix. The wreath | |
| Indolent hangs on far Vesuvius’ crest; | |
| And over all the town and sea, sweet rest. | | | | |
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